Adventures in Motherhood

She looks so innocent, right? 

I now have five children, the oldest being seven-years-old. One would think that I might finally know what I am doing. But the following story would prove how new babies humble even those that might be considered “experienced.”

I needed to run a VERY important errand to the bank. I took the baby who had been sleeping since just before lunch. (It was now about 2pm.) I woke the baby as I changed her diaper, but I figured she would be waking up soon to eat anyhow, so I would nurse her at the bank. We got to the bank and I had to wait. I waited on one of those nice comfortable couches – all by myself. It would have been a GREAT time to nurse the baby. But the baby was sleeping. I got waited on and left alone again. Another EXCELLENT time to nurse the baby came and went with baby sleeping. I finished up at the bank and SHOULD have gone home as I knew the baby would be wanting to eat soon, but we were down to half a gallon of milk at home. We often have up to 5 gallons of milk in the fridge (as we drink a lot of milk). A half gallon MIGHT make us through dinner, but would probably run out before cereal in the morning. So Miriam and I headed to the grocery store. I needed to use the restroom, so after putting on the moby wrap and inserting Miriam, I headed to the Ladies' room. I was prepared to nurse her as I shopped. It was after 3pm at this point and she had not nursed since before lunch. In fact, in the Ladies' room I attempted to get her “situated” to nurse while I shopped. I was proud of myself for doing so, however, Miriam was barely awake and not really that interested. Fine. I readjusted her and my clothing again and left the bathroom. Then I realized I did not tie the moby tight enough (as I'm out of practice with it) and Miriam was seriously sagging. So I laid her on a blanket in the cart and readjust the moby tighter. I put her back in, but now she was awake. Uh oh. We made it over to get some bread and she started to fuss. I tried to calm her. Oh no, NOW she wanted to nurse. Unfortunately, cinching the moby up tighter made it fairly difficult to nurse in it now. Miriam got louder. Really child? You are the quietest, calmest baby I have had so far and you are throwing a fit in the middle of the grocery store? Sigh. I take off the moby, throw a blanket over my shoulder and nurse the baby. I continue my shopping, smiling and being friendly and praying no one tries to peak under my blanket – as seeing a “fresh” baby is a treasure for many, but would come a price this time. About half way through my shopping my arm starts to cramp. I am out of practice at nursing with no carrier and walking around. Then I realize she has fallen asleep so I readjust her again to a burp rag on my shoulder and spend the next 6 years trying to re-snap my nursing bra with one hand. I am WAY out of practice on that apparently. Finally I am readjusted AGAIN, but having one hand on a baby severely limits my shopping speed. I ponder this as I one-hand four gallons of milk into my cart. Even readjusting the groceries so the bread is not squished and the eggs are safe, is such a tedious task. Finally we make it to the checkout. I pick a busy one to give myself time to get the groceries up, one by one. Now, out to the car, but first I less than gracefully try to throw a blanket over Miriam to shield her from the bright sun. Her arching as I hit the sunlight tells me my attempt was futile as the blanket bunched and did not make it over her head. I get her to the cart and start the car to cool it down. After the third trip of putting the groceries in I finally realize cars cool down faster when you actually turn the air conditioner on, not just the engine. Sigh again. When I have about two bags of groceries left, the cart gets a mind of its own, slides into the front of the our van, falls off the curb and almost into the van sitting beside us. For the record, this has NEVER happened to me before, even on the windiest of days. Only TODAY. As I get in the car I realize it is almost 4:30pm. A grocery store trip that would normally take between 20 and 30 minutes has just taken over an hour. Yep, I am definitely out of practice living life with a newborn.

Whiney Wednesday

I am a positive person, but.  . . I am still participating in Whiney Wednesday.  That's just how it is today.

1) Having Daddy work at home means the kids have to be QUIET.  Kids are not meant to be quiet all the time.  They are just not and NO AMOUNT of gentle reminders or deadly threatening is going to make them behave as such.  They are just not wired that way and it is driving me NUTS to try and keep them quiet.  Is it not enough that we just expanded our family and I am adapting to an extra child to care for and less sleep?  Oh no, that is not enough challenge.  God says, on top of that, lets see if you can not only care for them but keep them from being crazy ALL DAY LONG.  Let's make you get out of the house (even though you are a homebody and want nothing more than to cook and clean AT HOME all day) because the kids need time to blow off steam.  At least today is his day off.  We are being VERY LOUD!!  :)

2) I'm still wearing support hose for those varicose veins.  It is summer.  You get the picture.  Also, tacked onto this, I have this weird itching problem at night.  I have not changed my laundry soap in years, or my diet, so my only guess is that wearing wearing the hose all day (compressing my skin) and then taking them off at night (letting that skin stretch back out) is causing this discomfort.  I try to lather on lotion and it helps a little, but this "annoyance" is really getting old.  Plus if I'm not thinking and actually scratch then it is 500x worse as I just aggravated the problem and have to really FOCUS on not responding to the even-stronger-urge to scratch.

3)  Daddy's work schedule is INSANE right now.  He got moved to salary which is neither here nor there, but it means they can do whatever they want with him.  Ten hour days?  Yep.  Split shift?  Yep.  Different from one day to the next, not knowing the schedule for more than a few days at a time?  Yep.  A while back I let him travel to train at a couple different call centers for several weeks at a time.  One was in Florida and one in Pennsylvania.  The most difficult part was putting the kids to bed alone.  At that time I only had three - maybe one on the way - and I remember thinking "this is not acceptable!  I cannot put all these children to bed on my own  Everyone is just too needy at bedtime.  Gordie is not allowed to travel anymore or work evenings as I NEED his help at bedtime.  Well, guess who is now occasionally working evening shift through bedtime?  Yeah, and I have FIVE kids now.  Some nights it is not so bad, but often the baby is screaming, the other kids running are around half clothed, goofing off, causing chaos, stressing me out!!  Supposedly his schedule is supposed to "become more stable" and more "livable" (aka predictable daytime hours during weekdays) in a couple months.  Let us pray.

To join in the Whiney Wednesday fun, click here for the rules.

Thankfulness

A lot has been happening in our family life right now.  A lot that is STRESSING ME OUT!!  A lot of "really God?  really?!?!" moments for me.  I started a "whiney Wednesday" post (a few days early) but as I listed my "whines." I realized I had a lot to be thankful for.  So I'm going to make a Thankful List here to remind myself of all the good things God is doing and continues to do for us.

Although this is not really Miriam's CUTEST picture.  I actually think I see a little of me in her face in this picture.  It makes me happy.  Thus, I am putting it here.

Thankfulness List

1) I just had a baby and I feel GREAT.  Seriously, I remember feeling good for a few days post-birth (while the hormones are still raging) with most of my kids, but then after those first two or three days, not so much.  But this time, wow!  I am really floored.  I am ALMOST tempted to add some more physical activity, but I started that too early with my last babe and then it took EXTRA LONG to recover.  Still the housework and running after the kids is really a low-impact work-out most days as it is!  :)

2) Miriam is a fairly easy baby (so far).  She eats ok, she sleeps ok (as long as tucked in near a person -but I've come to expect this from babies, so it really does not bother me to keep her close while she naps).  I think maybe she likes me :)  I am way pumped to start "wearing" her more in my Moby Wrap.  But every time I think, "now would be a good time to put on the moby and wear Miriam," she falls asleep waiting for me!  Such a sense of humor this child has :)

3) I feel like I should be freaking out to have so many children, so young, but it is really not a big deal for me.  (Must be those happy "mothering hormones" I have flowing through me right now :)  We went to the museum today and I was very calm.  Other than Paul pushing the panic button on the van keys (that he ninja'd from the stroller when I was not looking) from the Discovery Room (3rd floor up - but has a window over the parking lot) and having to make a speedy exit to try and tame the noise, it was an enjoyable adventure.

4) Gordie seems to REALLY like his new position at work.  He is a trainer.  And the people he trains generally have good stuff to say about him.  I think he might have found something he actually enjoys!  (A real answer to prayer as he has never been all that crazy about his jobs before- they paid the bills, that was all.)

5) I have actually gotten some of my ever-growing "to do" list done.  I figured I would be barely surviving at this point, but with Miriam being so affable I am kinda thrown in flux here.  I keep expecting to not be able to get anything done and then find myself sitting around kinda bored.  So this afternoon I actually tried to be productive and wow, it worked!

6) Our air conditioner broke yesterday.  It was nothing too major, but it was a little overwhelming.  I put something on facebook out of sheer desperation (for pity more than anything else - as this was definitely one of those "really God?!?  really?!?!" moments).  No more than 3 minutes past from posting and I get a call that one of my friend's husband could help us out.  Today he and Gordie did a little work on it and so far it has been working fine since.  This definitely turned into a "WOW!  God really DOES answer prayers sometimes" kind of moment :)

(I know, I know, He ALWAYS answers prayers - we just sometimes know not what we ask for, but I have a poor memory when it comes to how good God is - all the time :)

"O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures for ever."  - Psalm 107:1

A party and a revelation for me

Paul's birthday was last week, but I strategically planned his party for this weekend thinking I would be a little recovered from having our latest baby.  I had HOPED to have a bit more time to recover, but I survived and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves so I'm going to consider it a win.  I did not get a lot of pictures as I often take lots of pictures and most of them are not very good, plus, I seem to have pictures in excess these days, or maybe I'm just moody and did not want to take pictures today.  Whatever, I only have a few to capture these memories, but they are cute and they make me happy, so here there are.

Paul LOVED this toy.  He was entirely too excited about the balls in my opinion.  I know, kids love balls, but I cringe at the thought of them as we are constantly loosing them and finding them and the chaos of it all drives my obsessive-compulsive nature a little crazy.  But anyhow, I love his serious face as he showed me his balls.

Here he is again, showing me.  Notice how serious this is.  HERE is THE BALL.

So, here is his cake and this is where the revelation comes in.  I have traditionally started making a slightly more healthy cake for the birthday parties I have at home.  I am always trying to choose more healthy options and get my kids accustomed to good healthy foods.  Traditional birthday cake is really not healthy - not even carrot cake.  Sorry to burst your bubble, but it is the truth.  So I make this recipe I found called nutri-cake.  It is pretty healthy.  It has whole grains, protein, and fruit.  It is also pretty yummy and the kids like it a lot.  Now, I have recipes for frosting ("healthy frosting" made from melted raisins, and the "regular kind" made from powdered sugar) but I have never had much success making frosting.  I don't have the patience for it I think - or just have never quite gotten the ingredient ratio quite right.  I can get it to taste good, but then it will be too runny, or I can get it to be a good consistency and taste horrible.  In any case, I know my limits and to top my nutri-cake, I used store-bought frosting and I'm ok with that.  This is the beginning of the revelation.  (On a side note, I should add that the cake tastes great WITHOUT frosting, but half the fun of a birthday is frosting - at least for me, because I LIKE TO EAT FROSTING!!  But we often make this cake and eat it "as a snack" without the frosting - and no one complains :) The next part has to do with the picture.  It is supposed to be a train.  could you tell that before you read this?  Maybe.  Paul likes trains.  So I put a train on it because I like Paul.  It is that simple. 

So, the revelation part: I am good at a lot of things.  But some things I am just not good at and that is ok.  I am not an artist.  No one wants me on their team for pictionary.  Now, there are a lot of blogs out there and the people on them seem to be good at EVERYTHING.  Seriously, some of the blogs I follow, I honestly wonder if these women leave golden nuggets in their toilets instead of the regular human waste.  Everything they try to do turns out BEAUTIFUL!  Well, that does not happen here at our house and you know what?  I'm ok with that.  My cake is not perfect.  My train looks like I let my 2-year-old draw it (probably my 6-year-old could have done a better job) but I'm ok with that.  Coming from a slightly obsessive-compulsive-wanna-be-perfectionist, you have no idea how freeing it is to admit this to myself.  My cake is not PERFECT, but it is acceptable and it is yummy and it is even a little bit good for you!  Kinda like me.  Thanks, Paul, for having a birthday so I could figure this out :)

Sibling Love

Samuel holding Miriam

A few days ago, Samuel says, "Mom, I like having a baby sister." That pretty-much sums it up.  I love these kids!

Miriam update, not quite a week old

So Miriam is a perfectly proportioned baby (according to the doctor anyhow) being in the 75th percentile for height, weight, and head size.  She also has a WONDERFUL temperament.  She is calm, sleeps well, eats well, and is all-around cute!  (As are most babies -even the fussy ones that often, make me laugh by their grumpy faces - cue Samuel here, the grumpiest baby for the first few months.)  She is truly a blessing as fitting her into our "routine" is really no trouble.  I'm struggling to make myself rest (as I know I need it) but once I get somewhat recovered I see us having an amazing summer.  The other kids have nothing but love for her and have been quite helpful!  It's like living a very good dream.  (On a side note, with lots of changes happening right now: Daddy's work schedule shifting with his new job (same company) and the beginnings of our garage building adventure, I cannot be thankful enough for an "uneventful" addition of our newest.  God can be  merciful after all :)


Baby Feet :)



Rebekah, Samuel, and Jacob meeting their new sister.

It's a baby!  :)

Playing computer games with Daddy.  All the kids loved this as babies.

Thumb sucker? She would be our first, but this is probably a fluke.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Paul!

Paul now has to share his birthday (May 17) with his younger sister.  We realize this will "scar him for life" but we figured, if you are going to mess your kids up, you might as well pick something good, right?  :)

In any case, lets talk about Paul.

- His  favorite thing to point out is a train or train track.  We hear lots of trains at our house, although we cannot actually see the tracks.  He often calls out train or train track at random times and I must answer that "no, there is no train or train track" several times before he will let the possibility go.

- Paul has recently discovered he can make "conversation" and often does so quite forcefully until someone responds to him.  If he is telling you something, he will get louder and louder with his word (or words) until you acknowledge him in some way.

- His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds.  Some of his favorite words (aside  from train or train track) are "coppeee" (coffee- ask Daddy how he learned this one :), cheese, cracker, cookie, drink, "nack" (snack),  bear, snake, baby, "Abeka" (Rebekah), "Jajup" (Jacob), and of course DADDY!!

- Paul is a very climby kid.  Seriously, he can climb up pretty-much anywhere the "big kids" can.  And he loves to climb up somewhere and then jump off. Fortunately he has not hurt himself yet, but I imagine it is only a matter of time.

- He likes to put on other people's shoes (like Rebekah's or Daddy's) and clomp around.  He would probably be happy to put his own on, too, but bigger ones are a little easier right now.

- Paul continues to be cute as all get-out and I just want to "eat him up"-especially those blonde curls :)
















I love you my sweet little boy!  May God continue to form you into a caring and thoughtful little man!